Ten Years
by thementalist2
Summary: When Gideon disappears while on a case, Hotch's life is turned around forever. It's the beginning of new relationships, new romances, and trust. It's also the beginning of new betrayals. Starts just before 'Extreme Aggressor.' Reid/JJ, Hotch/Emily, Rossi/Erin, Morgan/Garcia.
1. Extreme Aggressor

Becky Harris stared at her reflection in the full-length mirror. At 18 years old, she was one of her school's most popular girls. She had chocolate-brown hair that came past her shoulders. Her dark green eyes sparkled like diamonds when she stood outside in the sun. Her ankle-length silver prom dress was the most expensive thing her mother had ever bought for her. But unfortunately, Becky's mother had to have passed away so suddenly, leaving her behind with her abusive father.

Mr. Harris seemed like a nice guy to get to know, but inside, he was mean and cold-hearted. He didn't care about Becky at all, and blamed her for her mother's death four months ago. He spent more time with his girlfriend, Rebecca, then with Becky.

The girl heard the doorbell ring, and knew that her boyfriend was outside, waiting to take her to prom.

But Becky didn't even have to react. A masked figure entered the house, holding a butcher knife, and immediately stabbed her in the leg with the weapon.

She felt the blade cut through her skin, going right through her femoral artery. Blood began pooling from her leg, staining her cream-colored carpet.

Suddenly, she felt another blade touching her neck. The knife punctured the skin, cutting her jugular vein and carotid artery. Dark red blood began spraying the walls, staining pictures and drawings.

Becky felt the darkness closing around her. Black spots were clouding her vision. She figured that she was either going unconscious or was dying because she figured that she had lost over two pints of blood in about 30 seconds.

"Becky, I'm here," a voice whispered in her head. "I've missed you."

She felt her body go numb, and then saw nothing but darkness.

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The FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit in Quantico, Virginia, was always a busy place. Chasing serial killers, hunting down stalkers, abductors, and rapists was a hard job.

SSAs Derek Morgan, Spencer Reid, Jennifer "JJ" Jareau, Penelope Garcia, and Elle Greenaway were taking a small, brief break from work to fill up their growling stomachs.

Unit Chief Aaron "Hotch" Hotchner and Agent Jason Gideon were eating lunch in Hotch's office, talking about the upcoming trip to the bar after work.

In the bullpen, Morgan pulled up a video parody of "What Makes You Beautiful" and immediately, everyone started laughing.

Hotch felt his phone vibrate and saw that he had received a text from Section Chief Erin Strauss, telling him that his team was needed on a new case.

"Conference room, we have a case," Hotch said, throwing his salad back into his mini-fridge.

"I'll get the others," Gideon replied, wrapping up his turkey sandwich and tossing it in the fridge next to the salad.

When he walked out into the bullpen, he found the team eating lunch and completely distracted by something on Morgan's computer.

"Conference room, now," Gideon said.

The others threw their lunches into their bags and followed the agent into the conference room, to find Hotch standing in front of the screen displaying their latest case. The SSAs took their seats around the reddish-brown mahogany table, which was already covered with old case files.

"Yesterday evening, the body of 18-year-old Becky Harris was found in her bedroom. She had been stabbed once, the first time in the leg, which cut her femoral artery. Her throat was slit just several seconds after. The M.E. still hasn't made a certain cause of death, but he thinks that she died of exsanguination," Hotch said, pulling up a photo of Becky, along with ten other girls.

"Becky matches The Fisher King's M.O, which is females in their late teens to early 20s. Ten other girls just like Becky were abducted over a span of two years and their bodies were found in an alleyway a week later. He has never been caught."

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The FBI agent sitting at his desk in the bullpen was extremely distracted by Hotch's team talking in the conference room. The agent was trying to focus on tracking some bank accounts on his desk computer, but Hotch's team was much more interesting to look at. He spotted the woman with dark hair, laying back in the swivel chair and listening to her boss talk about the Fisher King.

_Mine,_ he thought. _She's mine. She's just like Becky and the others. _

But he knew that there would be some obstacles in his way. First on his list was Jason Gideon and Aaron Hotchner. Those two men would just glare at you and you would never want to do anything stupid in front of them ever again. Then there was the technical analyst Garcia who was probably the best tracker in the state. She would be able to identify pretty much anything in so short of time that he would have no time to escape or to carry out his plan.

The agent groaned in frustration. He knew that his plan to snatch Elle would be ruined once again.

"I must plan more carefully," he said to himself. "I've got work to do."

He pulled up a blank Word document and began typing away.

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15 minutes later, the agent looked up from his typing to find Hotch and his team leaving the conference room and heading towards the back of the BAU, towards the private jet. Unbeknownst to Hotch, his phone had been bugged, allowing the perfidious double agent to read all his texts, hear his calls, and hack his work and personal emails.

"Hotch, you have no idea what's coming your way. Maybe I'll just have a little fun with that pretty little wife of yours," the agent said, revealing a burner phone and heading towards the bathrooms, where he could make a private phone call.

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Haley Brooks-Hotchner had just stepped out of the shower when she heard her phone ringing. Drying her hands on her towel, she picked up the phone and saw that the number was unknown. Thinking it was one of the BAU, she answered the call.

"Hello?" she asked.

"Mrs. Hotchner? I'm so glad that you picked up the phone. After three rings, I was afraid I would never hear your voice," the strange person replied.

"Who are you?" Haley asked, regretting picking up the phone.

"My name doesn't matter to you at all. What matters to you is that your husband will pay for what he did to me all those years ago. He will lose someone important to him, and that person could be you."

"I don't know who you think you are, but stay away from me, or my husband will hunt you down," Haley said, trying to sound threatening.

"Too late. I've already selected my next victim. Expect a phone call from me in the next three days. I know your husband will only be gone that long. Be prepared."

The line went dead, and Haley found herself hyperventilating. She knew immediately that she had to call her husband and let him know what had just happened.

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Hotch was sitting near the middle of the plane, his laptop on and ready to receive any call from Garcia or Strauss.

Suddenly, his phone buzzed before the plane was about to taxi onto the runway.

"Hotchner," he said.

"Aaron, honey, it's me, Haley," the frantic voice of his wife replied into the phone.

"Haley, what's wrong?"

"Someone called me just about two minutes ago. He or she threatened me about you. They said that you were going to pay for something that you did to them years ago. They said that you would lose someone important to you, and that person could be me."

"I'm on my way home right now. I'll tell the team I can't come with them on this case. I love you."

"Love you too."

Once Hotch hung up the phone, he heard JJ telling the pilots not to taxi until the phone call was ended.

"Everything ok, Hotch?" Gideon asked, noticing his best friend's worried expression.

"I'm not sure, but you and the team will have to continue this case without me. There's an emergency with Haley. She said that someone was threatening her about me, and I need to be home with her," Hotch said. "Gideon, you're in charge."

"Hopefully everything's ok. Call us if you need anything."

"I will, thanks."

Grabbing his briefcase, Gideon told JJ the news and the pilots turned back towards the BAU.

Once at the gate, Hotch immediately headed towards the 'sign in/out' sheet, signed himself out, made sure both of his weapons were fully loaded and raced home.

But when he got home, a surprise was awaiting him.

Hotch had just barely set his keys on the mantel, when he heard a terrifying scream come from upstairs. He knew that scream right away. It was Haley, and it meant that she was in trouble.

Pulling out one of his guns, he quickly ran up the stairs, and stepped inside the master bedroom...to find a figure, dressed entirely in black, wearing a mask, and holding Haley close to him. She had a loaded gun pointed at her head, and tears pooled in her eyes.

"Let her go," Hotch snarled at the person.

"Not a chance. You will set BOTH of your weapons on the ground, and kick them over to me. Disobey, and I kill your wife."

**TBC... **

***A/N: I don't own any characters, except for the victims and some unsubs, and possibly new family members. Everyone else belongs to Jeff Davis and CBS. Most unsubs in this story will be actual unsubs used on Criminal Minds, but I changed some of their M.O.'s. Rossi, Emily, Blake, and Seaver will appear later on in the story.***

**~Who is this mysterious agent? And what does he want with Hotch? Next chapter up soon.~**


	2. Unknown Subject

"Disobey, and I kill your wife."

Those were the last words that Hotch heard before falling unconscious on the floor of the bedroom. The person had shoved Haley to the ground and pulled out a can of an unknown substance. Whatever was inside was sprayed in his face, and he felt his body going numb.

"Aaron, no! You can't die on me!" Haley had shouted, but was slapped in the face.

"Leave...her..alone," Hotch mumbled, but no words came out.

The last thing he had seen was the sight of his wife being dragged out of the room before the entire world around him faded to black.

Sometime later, he regained consciousness...only to discover that his hands had been handcuffed behind him and his mouth was covered by a strip of duct tape.

"Well, well, what do we have here?" the person said, holding up Hotch's FBI credentials and ringing cell phone.

"BAU Unit Chief Aaron Hotchner," the person continued, reading the name on the ID. "Looks like someone really wants to talk to you." Then, they read the caller ID on the phone. "Who's Jason Gideon?"

Hotch's eyes widened. Gideon was someone that the agent looked up to as a father figure since his own father had abused him as a child.

"Oh, right, you can't speak."

The person ripped off the tape, and held the phone close to Hotch.

"You will call him back, and tell him that everything's ok. Otherwise, I will hurt Haley and her unborn child."

Hotch was astounded. Haley was pregnant? How was he not informed of this news?

"I've been keeping an eye on you for a while now. You are just so fascinating to study and watch. How everyone looks up to you as a role model. Too bad that you're going to lose that opportunity."

The person left the room and came back a couple minutes later, half-dragging Haley with him. Her face was covered in sweat and her eyes were still pooling with tears.

"Haley!" he exclaimed. Then he did his best death-glare at the unsub. "What did you do to her?"

"I did nothing. This is all your fault. If you hadn't prosecuted me all those years ago, involving me in the death of my daughter, then none of this would had to have happened. Now, you're going to call Gideon back and tell him that everything's ok."

The person pulled up his name in the contacts info, and held the phone to Hotch's ear in one hand, while the other pointed a gun at the side of his head.

"Try anything funny, and the next thing Jason's going to hear is a bullet going right into your head."

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Gideon stared at his phone for the umpteenth time in the last half hour. He had called Hotch twice, and so far, there hadn't been a response. The agent had gotten a bad feeling that something terrible was going to happen when Hotch went home.

Suddenly, the phone rang. Gideon answered the call.

"Hotch, thank goodness. I was getting worried."

"I'm ok, Jason," Hotch's voice said. But Gideon noticed that the tone of voice sounded scared or nervous.

Hotch was trying hard not to sound like he was in trouble. But with a gun touching the side of his head, and his wife tied to the bed, it was hard to keep his tone normal.

"Hotch, are you sure you're ok? You sound very nervous," Gideon said.

"I'm fine, Jason. But I do appreciate your call."

Suddenly, the sound of breaking glass was heard. Gideon stood up, alarmed. He knew that something had happened to Hotch.

"Aaron really enjoyed talking to you, but now it's my turn," an unfamiliar voice replied. "Hope you had a nice chat."

"Who is this?" Gideon's tone became threatening.

"Now, now, I wouldn't be saying things like that to the person who holds your boss's life in my hands. You will do as I say, or Hotch here will pay the price. You will continue the case and pretend as if everything's alright. You will not be turning around and coming back home to Quantico. If I see that you or any of his team members have arrived back here, I won't hesitate to hurt him or his beloved Haley."

"Fine," Gideon muttered.

"Good. I'll expect you to be at the Hotchner house the moment you land back in Quantico. I will offer you a trade, and you will either take it or leave. I will contact you soon."

The line went dead, and the agent put his head in his hands. What was he supposed to do? He cared about Hotch, and now his Unit Chief was being held somewhere unknown.

But Gideon couldn't do anything, because he was 35,000 feet high above the skies of Virginia.

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"Good job, my friend," the man said, snatching Hotch's phone out of his hand again. "Gideon and the team will be continuing this case without you. He must pretend as though nothing is going on here."

"You little- what did you tell him?" Hotch snapped, still struggling against the handcuffs.

"I told him that you had a nice chat with him, and the fact that he can't come back home to Quantico just yet. I've decided to arrange a trade. His life for yours."

"No! Leave him out of this! Do whatever you want to me, but leave Gideon alone."

"I'm sorry, but are you the one giving the orders around here? I think not. If I say that Gideon will be involved in this situation, then he will."

The man slapped Hotch in the face. "You don't feel my pain. And it's all the pain that YOU caused me. You don't care about my pain. But I will make you pay. And you will lose someone important to you."

TBC…


	3. The Seattle Strangler

"Gideon will track you down. And he will kill you," Hotch glared at the unsub.

"Like I care? No, I don't. I really don't care. But since Gideon can't come and rescue you, you and your wife will be my prisoners. Haley here will be my slave."

"Do what you want to me, but leave my wife alone. She had nothing to do with this."

"I'm in charge here!" the unsub snapped, slapping the Unit Chief in the face. "I can do whatever I want, whenever I want. And right now, Haley will do what I tell her to do."

~CriminalMinds~

Gideon and the team arrived in North Carolina, where Becky Harris had died. He was the last person to step off the plane. Elle, JJ, Morgan, and Reid were already headed towards the airport to grab their luggage.

Gideon didn't get very far before he heard a familiar voice talk to him from somewhere off in the distance. It was Timothy "Tim" Vogel, AKA The Seattle Strangler.

"It's been so long," Tim said, pulling out something from his back pocket.

"What do you want?" Gideon snapped. Somehow, Tim managed to escape from prison and was now out in the world, going after more people.

"Revenge. You put me in prison, so now you're going to pay for all your mistakes. I do only hope that you will cooperate."

Jason felt something prick his neck. Whatever Tim had given him was fast acting, because the profiler was already going numb. His vision was fading and the darkness closed around him.

Just before he went unconscious, he heard the vicious voice of his captor speaking into the phone. The unsub was talking to Morgan.

"You will never get him back."

~CriminalMinds~

Morgan and Elle had just stepped into Becky's house when he suddenly heard his phone buzz. Thinking that his BabyGirl had just called, he opened his voicemail. But he was even more astounded when he saw that Gideon was the person who had called.

He pressed 'play' and heard an unfamiliar voice speaking.

"You're too late, Agent Morgan. You're already too late to save him. You will never get him back," the taunting voice said. The voicemail ended and Morgan almost dropped his phone on the floor, near a large pool of blood.

"Elle, we've got a problem, but I don't know what happened. Someone just called me and said 'You will never get him back,'" Morgan said.

"Wait, before you continue, where's Gideon?" Elle asked.

"He's not with you?"

"No, last time I saw him was back at the plane. That was 45 minutes ago."

"JJ! Reid!"

The other two profilers entered the room.

"Have you seen Gideon?" Morgan asked.

JJ and Reid looked at each other and shook their heads.

Morgan suddenly paled. He realized that the person who had called him on the phone was talking about Gideon.

Elle heard her phone ring. "Hello?" "WHAT? He's back?! Garcia, are you sure? Ok, thanks. Call you when we arrive."

"What happened?" JJ asked.

"Hotch just arrived back at work. He's fine. Someone held him and Haley captive in their home, but released them after learning that Gideon had been abducted."

"Gideon's been abducted?!" Reid said, completely astounded.

"The person who took him called me!" Morgan cried. "That creep called me using Gideon's phone!"

"Morgan, calm down, we will find him," JJ said.

~CriminalMinds~

Gideon awoke to a stinging pain in his neck. He was sitting in a chair with his hands tied behind his back. The Seattle Strangler entered the room, carrying a burner phone.

"Mr. Hotchner is going to be so disappointed once he learns who has you," Tim said, dialing Hotch. "I only hope that he will have enough money to pay for your ransom. But unfortunately, whatever amount of money he gives me will never be enough. You will never leave here."

"This is Agent Hotchner," the Unit Chief said.

"Mr. Hotchner, what a pleasure it is to speak to you again," Tim replied. "I believe that I have something of yours."

"What have you done to him?" Hotch demanded.

"Nothing that concerns you."

"What did he ever do to you?"

"He put me in jail. He must pay for what he did to me. He will suffer. You will never see your beloved co-worker again."

TBC...


	4. Compulsion

"If you're not going to comply with me, then we'll have to do this the hard way," Tim said, after ending the call. He walked towards his helpless hostage. "You will become my accomplice and you will do everything I tell you to do."

Grabbing Gideon's wrist, the Seattle Strangler cut the zip-ties and led his hostage into another room. It was isolated from the rest of the house, and the room had no windows.

The Strangler led Jason over to a strange device attached to wooden posts in the middle of the room. Forcing him to stand against the wood, the perpetrator made sure Jason wouldn't escape. His wrists were locked on either side of him with metal cuffs. A helmet was placed on his head, and was locked just under his chin. Jason noticed that the skin under his eyes had been pulled down, and were being held inside several small clips attached to the helmet.

He was somewhat in pain, and then was greeted by the sight of something spinning. His eyes were focused on the spinning spiral on the screen in front of him.

"This won't hurt at all," Tim said, shutting and locking the door behind him.

Jason couldn't do anything to get himself free, and was stuck staring at the spiral for an hour until Tim returned. The Strangler stood in front of the screen, temporarily blocking the thing that seemed to be blinding Gideon.

"You ready to comply?" Tim sneered.

"Go away," Jason snapped.

"Fine then, you asked for it. I'll be back in an hour."

~CriminalMinds~

An hour later, Gideon's eyes were hurting from not being able to blink for two hours. Tim entered the room and shut off the screen. When he looked at his hostage, he saw a different look in his eyes and smiled sadistically.

Tim unlocked the metal cuffs and whispered something in his hostage's ear. Jason headed off into another room of the house, while Tim hurried down the hall to his office.

Five minutes later, Jason entered the office, a grin on his face and a file in his hand.

"I got the file just like you asked me to," Gideon said, handing the file to his new boss.

"Thank you very much," Tim replied, taking the papers. The BAU logo was clearly stamped on the front of the folder.

"Happy to comply," Gideon said, smiling sadistically. He knew that he wasn't going to be leaving Tim anytime soon and heading back to the BAU to help his team. Actually, he didn't have a team anymore. The faces and names of people he cared about were gone. He didn't know who Morgan, JJ, Reid, Elle, Garcia, or Hotch were anymore. All he knew was that they were part of a team from the FBI known as the Behavioral Analysis Unit, or BAU, and that they hunted down criminals using profiles.

"The BAU is a bad place. The people working there want to kill you. And they will," Tim said.

Gideon listened to his new boss give him orders.

"I will do that right away, sir," Jason said.

~CriminalMinds~

Clara Hayes sat outside her college's front office, when she was approached by Gideon. She started to back away, but when she saw that he was FBI, she took a few steps forward.

"I'm Agent Gideon, could I talk to you for a minute?" he asked.

Clara nodded her head. "Sure," she replied.

Once she was away from the campus, Gideon started talking to her. He agreed to help her commit a small series of crimes that wouldn't result in anyone's death.

It was 3:33 PM in the afternoon, and Gideon handed Clara a match, making sure that the camera wouldn't pick up on either one of them. She struck the match on a match box, and set some grass and a bush on fire. Then, Clara and Gideon made a run for it, running towards Tim's house.

He knocked on the door, and his boss opened the door.

"Jason, what are you doing here?"

"I completed my assignment, and now I'll be on the run from the place you call the BAU," Jason replied.

"Excellent. Tomorrow, at the same time, you will set another fire."

"Yes, Sir," Gideon replied.

Tim stepped inside and let Jason and Clara enter. She was given the guest room, and just as she set her binder and notebooks down, she noticed that her mother had texted.

**Mom:** Where r u?

**Clara:** At a friend's. It's Friday, so I'm spending the night.

**Mom:** A girl or boy?

**Clara:** Girl.

**Mom:** Ok, see you Saturday.

~CriminalMinds~

Hotch was sitting in his office, trying to figure out if Gideon had a message anywhere in the phone call. He heard a knock, and said, "Come in."

Elle entered with a grim look on her face. "Hotch, I've got bad news. One, the DNA results that we found in Becky's house came back. It's the Seattle Strangler, boss. One of Gideon's old cases. And two, your official BAU file appears to be missing, or stolen. The lock containing all our files was unlocked, but I found several scratches on the drawer. I think the file was stolen."

"How could anyone just break into the drawer and steal our files? The only people who have access to that drawer is my team."

"We will have to look at the security camera feeds and take a closer look."

Hotch and Elle headed into Section Chief Strauss's office, and saw that she wasn't in the room.

"Hotch, are you sure you want to use her computer?" Elle asked. "We could get in huge trouble."

"I'll be fine, because she let me use it in the past if mine wasn't working. And she's the only one who has access to the security camera feeds. She only told me the password, and no one else can know what it is."

Hotch sat in her desk chair and turned on his boss's computer. He entered a password, only to realize that Strauss had changed the pass code.

The Section Chief entered the room a minute later, a new engagement ring on her finger.

"Agent Hotchner, what are you doing at my computer?" she asked.

"My file's been stolen," Hotch said. "My file. The official file that everyone has while working here. And the only people who have access to the drawer where my file is are my team and I know them well enough that they would never do something like that."

"Your file? Isn't it locked?"

"Someone had a key and opened the drawer. There were scratches. Someone broke in and stole it. I had hoped that I could see the security camera feeds to see if I could find anything, but the password has changed. Did you change it?"

"No, I haven't changed it in two years."

"Who's the lucky man?" Elle asked, while Strauss walked over to the computer and tried to input the password, but got the same result as Hotch.

"Dave Rossi," Strauss said. "He proposed at lunch today. I don't know when we're getting married yet."

She groaned in frustration. "Darn it, why doesn't this pass code work?!"

Suddenly, her computer beeped. The screen went dark and a message appeared a few seconds later.

MISSING SOMEONE?

The message disappeared and focused on an unknown room. A figure was handcuffed to wooden posts. The person wore a helmet, and was seemingly forced to watch something on another screen.

Elle ran into the bullpen and called Morgan, JJ, Reid, and Garcia into Strauss's office.

When Reid saw the screen, he gasped in horror.

"That's Gideon…" the genius began, but couldn't finish his sentence.

"What's happening to him?" JJ exclaimed, watching her co-worker being unable to blink.

"He's been forced to stare at something, but I don't know what," Hotch said.

The screen went dark and another message appeared.

TWO HOURS LATER…

The message disappeared and was now focused on Gideon again. The metal cuffs had been unlocked, and he looked like he was having trouble focusing. Another man came into the room, and Morgan gasped.

"Oh no, that's the Seattle Strangler," he said. "The man who killed Becky Harris."

The Strangler whispered something to Gideon, and the profiler disappeared into another room. Five minutes later, the camera shifted to an office in another part of the unknown building.

"Oh no…" Hotch said, seeing a part of a tan folder. Gideon pulled the folder out and handed it to the man sitting behind the desk. The BAU's stamped logo came into view, and then came Hotch's full name.

"No, it can't be!" he said. Gideon was just smiling.

"I got the folder just like you asked," the profiler said to the Strangler.

"Thank you very much," the killer replied.

"Happy to comply."

Hotch realized that Gideon was working for The Seattle Strangler. How could his best friend, who he had known for over 15 years, betray the BAU like this?

"Gideon…he just stole my file. He just gave it to the Seattle Strangler. I don't how I'll ever forgive him for this."

Strauss's computer then showed the security camera feeds from two days earlier. It showed Gideon, looking straight into the camera, and then unlocked the drawer using his key. Jason reached into the drawer and took Hotch's file out, locking the door behind him and heading out the door.

Morgan and JJ had astonished looks on their faces. They couldn't believe that someone they knew and trusted had betrayed them. Elle was speechless and excused herself to head out to the bullpen. Hotch's hands became fists, and he slammed his fists against the wall. Strauss grabbed her phone and dialed her fiancé to tell him the news.

But the news hit Reid the hardest. Gideon had been like a father to Reid, since the genius never had one. And now Reid had been betrayed the most.

The BAU had walked straight into the arms of the enemy. And they would never be the same again.

~CriminalMinds~

Reid stormed out of Strauss's office, furious at Gideon. The genius had trusted him more than his own life, and now the trust had dissolved like salt sinking to the bottom of a glass of water. And there was no one to take a spoon and stir the salt into the water. The salt just stayed at the bottom.

JJ ran after him, pulling him into a hug.

"How, JJ? He betrayed me! I trusted him!" Reid said.

"He betrayed us all, Spence. It's going to be hard for all of us. Do you remember when Will left me for Haley?" JJ replied.

"Haley...as you mean, Hotch's wife?"

"Yes. Hotch knows nothing. Haley is pregnant with Will's child. She already has divorce papers drawn up and waiting for Hotch's signature."

JJ had developed a crush on Reid a couple of weeks after Will left her. She needed to let her co-worker know how she felt about him.

"Spence, I need to tell you something," she said. "Don't hate me for this."

"What?" he asked, but couldn't ask any more because JJ was kissing him. The Jennifer Jareau. Quantico's top media liaison for 6 years.

"JJ…" he began.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I shouldn't have-"

He interrupted her by kissing her back.

"JJ, I love you," he said. "I always have."

"Me too."

They attempted to kiss again, but immediately scurried off once they heard Hotch walk out of Strauss's office. JJ stood in front of the copy machine, pretending to copy papers about Gideon's abduction. Reid was standing in front of the whiteboard, trying to figure out Tim's location.

"Agent Jareau, Doctor Reid, my office now," Hotch said.

TBC...


	5. Hijacked

Reid and JJ entered Hotch's office, receiving strange looks from their boss. They knew that they would be in big trouble for PDA in the workplace.

"So, how long has a romantic relationship in the workplace been going on between you two?" Hotch asked once his two teammates had taken a seat in front of his desk.

"It actually just happened before you told us to come in here, Hotch," JJ said. "It just happened."

"Since it hasn't been very long, you won't be getting reprimanded. But this is a warning. You may continue your relationship, but in the workplace, you must stay professional. Whatever happens outside of work is your business. Understood?"

"Yes, Hotch," Reid and JJ said.

"Ok, then get back to work."

The two agents left the office and headed back out to the bullpen where a smiling Garcia was demanding that Morgan give her 20 dollars for losing the bet on whether Reid and JJ were a couple.

~CriminalMinds~

Clara stood outside her college, waiting the last bell to ring. She had agreed to commit another crime at 3:33 PM that day, which was starting another fire. She had already set four fires, and so far, no one had gotten hurt. But she enjoyed burning things, so she decided to continue doing what she had started. And with a brainwashed FBI agent on her side, he could easily hide evidence from the members of his former team.

At 3:33 PM, Clara walked into the history classroom and found it empty. The only person inside was a student named Matthew Rowland. When he saw Clara, he said hi, but only received silence in response.

When he wasn't looking, she quietly pulled out a match and a matchbox. She set the match on fire...and dropped it over a pile of ungraded papers. The fire quickly spread, setting off the smoke alarm. Clara locked the doors behind her as she ran out, trapping Matthew in the classroom with no way out.

"Clara, what are you doing?" he shouted. But she never looked behind her as she exited the campus, running towards Gideon, who had a car waiting for her.

In the classroom, Matthew was trying to open the windows, but the smoke level was so thick that he began having trouble breathing. His eyes burned, and his vision was spinning. His life was flashing before his eyes, and he knew that he was going to die.

He saw the flames coming straight towards him and then nothing else.

~CriminalMinds~

Hotch was sitting in his office when his desk phone rang. He answered the call.

"This is Agent Hotchner," he said.

"It's Strauss. We have a new case," the Section Chief replied. "Conference room, five minutes."

Hotch headed out into the bullpen and found Reid and JJ standing close to each other while reading the whiteboard. Garcia was sitting at Morgan's desk, trying to destroy a virus that had infected his computer. And standing by Reid and JJ was David Rossi, a man who had retired from the BAU many years ago. Elle was nowhere to be seen.

"Dave?" Hotch said.

The former profiler turned around, and a smile appeared on his face.

"Hotch, so good to see you!" he said, giving the Unit Chief a hug. "How have you been?"

"Pretty good," Hotch replied. "What brings you back to the BAU?"

"I heard about Gideon, and Erin asked me to come back and take his place. I'm so sorry."

"Thanks. I just can't believe that someone I knew and trusted for 15 years went out and betrayed me. He betrayed my entire team. Reid and Elle have been hit the hardest. Gideon was like a father to Reid. And Gideon was Elle's boyfriend. He supposedly cheated on her with a woman named Sarah, but that was false."

Strauss walked out of her office and called everyone to the conference room, where Garcia was already pulling up pictures of the latest crime.

"Matthew Rowland, 19, was found burnt to death by his teacher, professor Wallace. Wallace was at lunch at the time of the crime, and when he came back, he found his room burnt along with the body," Garcia said.

"Did Wallace have any idea what might have started the fire?" Reid asked.

"Possibly, because he remembered having a pile of ungraded papers on one of the desks and they were partially burned, but not entirely ash. He thinks that the papers were where the fire began."

"Wheels up in 15," Hotch said.

~CriminalMinds~

Gideon sat in the pilot's seat of the BAU's private jet alongside his new boss. The real pilot and co-pilot were both dead, and had been stuffed in the cargo hold, where no one would even think about looking for a body.

"Sir, the BAU is heading to Nevada to check out the scene of Clara's latest crime. What shall we do?" Gideon asked.

"We're going to lead them off course, and land in Arizona. There, we'll leave them exposed to the elements and have them die," the boss replied. "You understand what to do?"

"Yes, sir, I'm always happy to comply."

"Good, now prepare the plane for takeoff."

Gideon made sure the plane was ready to go, and heard the members of his former team boarding the jet and settling down in their seats.

"We shall be landing in Vegas in about five hours, so sit back and enjoy the flight," Gideon said, using a voice changer to sound like the original pilots.

Four hours later, Hotch awoke to some turbulence and noticed that Morgan was wide awake. He was heading up towards the cockpit door.

"Morgan, what are you doing?" the Unit Chief asked.

"Something's wrong. The plane's descending and it's only been about four hours since we took off," Morgan replied.

Hotch headed up to the door and knocked.

"Sir, why is the plane descending when we're not even near Nevada yet?" he asked.

"Sit down, Agent Hotchner, otherwise you and your team are going to pay for it," the voice said.

He paled. He realized that Gideon was the one flying the plane and had hijacked the controls.

"You...how could you? How could you betray us?"

Gideon opened the door, a cold expression on his face and a gun in his hand, which he pointed at Hotch.

"I won't ask you again, Agent Hotchner. SIT DOWN or one of your team members gets it."

Elle heard the commotion and was astounded to find her boyfriend pointing his gun at her boss.

"Gideon...please, you don't have to do this," she said. "I love you, but it doesn't have to end this way."

"Who do you think you are? I'm not going out with you. I don't even know who you are. You have no right to tell me what I can and can't do. I'm in charge here, and you will obey what I say."

"What...what's going on with you? Gideon, it's me. Elle. We work together. We've been going out for a year and we're going to be married in a month," she said, showing him the engagement ring.

"I don't know anyone by the name of Elle, nor do I care. I'm the one flying this plane. SIT DOWN!"

Elle was taken aback. She couldn't believe that her fiancé would do something like this, turning on everyone he cared about. She quickly walked back to her seat and let the tears fall.

"What happened?" JJ asked, grabbing Reid's hand.

"Gideon's hijacked the plane and is landing it nowhere near Vegas. He's got a gun pointed at Hotch. Gideon doesn't know who I am. He doesn't know who any of us are," Elle said.

"That's...that's not possible. Gideon's worked with Hotch for 15 years. How could he not know who his own boss is?"

"The only option is that he's been drugged or brainwashed. Someone did this to him, and I intend to put a stop to it now. He is my fiancé, and I need to help him."

"He's got a gun pointed at our boss, Elle, and he's going to hurt you if we don't do what he tells us to do."

The brown-haired agent reluctantly sat back down in her seat. Hotch came back as well, but his wrists had been handcuffed in front of him.

"He took my guns. Both of them," the Unit Chief said. "He handcuffed me and told me that we would be landing in about 15 minutes. From the sky view, it looks like we're somewhere over Arizona. He also said that he would confiscate all our electronics and weapons. All our IPads, laptops, cell phones, and pagers are either going to be turned off or the GPS will be removed. I'm hoping that Strauss will notice that something is wrong because we are below the radar."

"AGENTS," Gideon said over the intercom. "Please prepare for landing. Once we do in about 15 minutes, you will hand over all your weapons and electronics over to us. Then you will be told what to do next."

TBC...


	6. Broken

Erin stared at her computer screen. She hadn't heard anything from her fiancé since he had boarded the plane to Vegas. It had been seven hours since her team had left Quantico and they were supposed to have landed two hours ago. Air Traffic Control hadn't contacted her and she was becoming sick to her stomach with worry.

Suddenly, the phone rang, and Erin didn't even bother to look at the Caller ID.

"Hello?" she said.

"Yes, is this Section Chief Strauss?" a voice replied.

"Yes, this is she. Who is this?"

"This is Craig Landon from Air Traffic Control. We saw that a plane of yours was supposed to have landed in Vegas two hours ago. But it never arrived. We're looking through the radar to see if we can find it, but it looks like the signal disappeared just over the New Mexico/Arizona border," the man said.

"But...that's nowhere near Vegas. Why was the plane over in that area?"

"We're still trying to rule out the possibility of a crash, but we think that the plane was hijacked and lead off course."

"Please find them," Erin said. "My fiancé was on that flight."

"Ma'am, we will do our best and will call you when we hear any new details."

She put a hand over her mouth and silently prayed that Rossi and the team were alright.

~CriminalMinds~

Hotch saw that the plane had landed, and that the rest of his team was looking at him with concern. They had no idea how they were going to get out of the situation. They had never experienced a hijacking before.

"We have now landed in Death Valley, California. You will be escorted off this plane immediately, and you will leave everything behind. All your electronics, food and water will be stored here," the Seattle Strangler's voice said over the intercom. "Be prepared for high temperatures. Even worse for you guys is that it's July. The hottest month of the year in this city."

The door opened and Hotch immediately felt the desert heat on his forehead. He had never been to Death Valley, but he had read all about the high temperatures. It had once been 134 degrees in 1913, but the temperature was in the high 110s during the summer. A list of dangers began running through his head, dehydration being the first. Then fatigue would set in.

"Off the plane," Gideon ordered harshly.

JJ and Elle were the first people off, and the hot sun began to beat down on them. They were lucky that they had drank some water while on the plane otherwise they would be even thirstier than normal.

Morgan and Reid stepped off next, with Rossi and Hotch getting off last. The Unit Chief tried to grab the smallest bottle of water available, but Jason just took it away from him.

The door shut behind them, and the six agents began walking from their only source of survival. After walking for about 10 minutes, they turned around and saw that the plane had taken off and was heading east, away from the group.

The profilers looked around at their new surroundings, but all they could see was cacti, dead plants, and...sand. Lots of sand.

Hotch and Rossi took off their jackets and dropped them on the ground, hoping that someone would find them and call for help. JJ and Reid ended up holding hands and trying to find large rocks to form a trail. They had no idea where they were going, and were scared that they would die a painful death.

After three hours, the sun began to set and the profilers were feeling the first effects of mild dehydration and fatigue. Reid leaned against a boulder and allowed JJ to use him as a pillow.

***This part is dedicated to HotchRocks. I feel bad for hurting your favorite character. :(.***

Hotch said that he was going to walk some more and see if he could find some help. He remembered to leave rocks on the ground as a trail for his team to find if he got stranded.

But leaving his team in a place that he had never been to would be the worst decision he would ever make.

He had walked a mile away from his team and thought he spotted a building in the distance when all of a sudden, his foot slipped out from underneath him. He had unknowingly stepped on a piece of dirt that wasn't secure. He fell to the ground, falling onto his behind and slipping off the side of the trail. The ground was covered in pebbles and little stones that did nothing to prevent him from falling any more. He slid about 30 feet down the side of the trail, and thought that a small ledge would prevent him from going even further away from his team. Unfortunately, the ledge was not wide enough for him to stop himself.

He quickly fell off the side of the canyon and began falling towards the ground. And it was not going to be an easy landing.

Hotch began to see his life flash before his eyes. He thought about his son, leaving him without a dad. And he and his son shared a special bond.

Suddenly, a POP! was heard and then Hotch saw nothing but black.

But, a few seconds later, he opened his eyes and saw that he was at the bottom of a canyon. An excruciating pain flowed throughout his entire body.

_I'm not dead,_ he thought. _I thought I had died._

He tried to push himself back up, but he discovered that he couldn't. He could still feel his legs, relieved to know that he wasn't paralyzed. But he didn't realize the deadly consequences that he would be facing.

Unbeknownst to Hotch, the 50-foot-fall (30 feet off the side of the trail, and 20 feet off the side of the narrow ledge) had caused his pelvic bone to shatter into pieces. Because of his broken pelvis, he wasn't able to pull himself up to walk or run. Instead, he would now be forced to crawl back to where his team was or wait for his team to rescue him.

Hotch tried to flip himself over onto his stomach to begin crawling, but the only thing he heard was the sound of his own scream.

TBC...


	7. Abducted

Hotch clenched his hands into fists and desperately tried to crawl back to the bottom of the canyon, where a natural 'staircase' made of rocks had formed. He figured that he could try to use the upper half of his body to push himself back up and hopefully make it back to where his team was. But the pain of being broken perfectly in half made it nearly impossible for him for him to even begin to move. He used every bit of energy he had left to begin to push himself towards the 'staircase.'

It took him two hours to reach the bottom of the rocks, but if he wasn't broken, it would have taken him a couple of minutes to walk. He tried lifting his arms to push himself up the rocks, but his body was too weak to go any further. Night was coming quickly and Hotch knew that temperatures could drop below freezing. If he fell asleep, he would suffer hypothermia. He began to wonder if his team was worried about him because he had been gone for about three hours.

~CriminalMinds~

Reid awoke a couple of hours later to discover that the sky was pitch black and that JJ was fast asleep against his shoulder. Rossi and Elle were the only others awake.

"What time is it?" Reid asked.

The older profiler looked at his watch. "It's 11 at night. Why?"

"Because Hotch hasn't returned. He left about five hours ago to go find help, and he's nowhere to be seen. Do you think something's happened to him?"

"Hotch is strong, and a fighter. I'm pretty sure he just got a little lost, but he told me that he was going to leave a trail of rocks behind so that if he did get lost, we would be able to see where he went," Rossi replied. "It's dark, and I don't want to get lost at this time of the night. We will go looking for him in the morning."

Reid nodded in agreement, then fell back to sleep, his arms protectively wrapped around JJ.

~CriminalMinds~

***Dedicated to HotchRocks. Don't hate me, please :) I promise that I will not kill Hotch.***

Hotch looked around him and saw that no one was coming to rescue him. He had started screaming 'HELP' over and over again, but to no avail. Given up on any hope of rescue, he decided to try and get some sleep. He knew that it was in the high 80s, so he wouldn't freeze to death.

The next morning, around seven, the Unit Chief awoke to a blinding pain in his midsection. He noticed that a slight bump had formed around his injury. He still didn't have any idea that his pelvis was broken. But he felt the bump and noticed that it was squishy like a balloon. He thought the squishiness was inflammation, but unbeknownst to him, the injury was far worse than he expected.

Because of his broken pelvis, the pieces of bone had severed several major blood vessels in his abdomen. He had been bleeding internally for over 12 hours, and if he did not receive emergency surgery to repair the severed vessels, he would likely exsanguinate to death within the next 24 to 36 hours.

"HELP, PLEASE SOMEONE HELP!" Hotch screamed as loud as he could. He heard Rossi's voice off in the distance, calling his name.

"DAVE, HELP, I CAN'T MOVE!" the Unit Chief begged.

"Hotch, where are you?"

"Down here, at the bottom of the canyon!"

Rossi, Reid and Morgan quickly ran down the 'staircase' and found Hotch, completely in pain. They noticed they he could barely push himself up without screaming.

"What happened? What's wrong?" Rossi said.

"Can't...walk or get up," Hotch replied.

Morgan gasped, thinking that his boss was paralyzed from the waist down. He and Rossi supported Hotch and tried to get him to stand up, but it was no use. Their boss couldn't use the lower half of his body, even though he told them that he could feel his legs.

Rossi pulled out his watch, which turned out to be the Samsung Watch. This technology allowed you to text and call whoever you wanted. It also had Samsung Voice, which was the Android version of Siri.

"Call Death Valley PD," Rossi said into his watch. After two rings, someone picked up on the other end.

"Death Valley PD, Chief Nelson speaking," a female voice said.

"Yes, my name is Dave Rossi, I'm with the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit, and my co-workers and I are stranded somewhere in the Mojave Desert. We have never been here, so we have no idea where exactly in the Desert we are. Our boss is critically injured and cannot stand up or walk."

"Ok, we'll be sending two choppers over there now," the Chief said.

~CriminalMinds~

Gideon and the Strangler had landed the plane back in Quantico and had snuck back into the BAU. Erin didn't even have time to react seeing her former subordinate enter the building and head towards into her office because Tim shoved a cloth soaked in chloroform over her mouth and nose, forcing her to breathe in the deadly chemical. After a few seconds, she went unconscious and collapsed in Tim's arms.

"Get her out of here before someone sees us," the Strangler ordered. Gideon and his boss carried the unconscious Strauss out to a dark car in the parking lot. They tied her wrists behind her with zip-ties and made sure that the car had enough gas. Locking the trunk, Tim took her car keys and put it into the ignition. The car was out of the parking lot within two minutes, and was on its way to Tim's house, where his prized possession would be used once again on another unfortunate victim.

~CriminalMinds~

An hour later, Erin awoke in a brightly lit room, her hands trapped in metal cuffs attached to wooden planks. She was strapped against a wall, which was completely bullet and soundproof. A metal helmet had been fastened on her head, her eyes being forced to focus on the sight in front of her. The engagement ring had been taken off and sealed inside an evidence bag, the kind of bag that CSIs would use to collect evidence at a crime scene.

To her horror, Jason Gideon, BAU profiler turned deadly unsub, stood in front of her, holding the evidence bag containing her seven-thousand dollar ruby-sapphire-diamond engagement ring. A note had been taped onto the bag saying, 'We have your fiancee. And you will never see her again.'

"Gideon...how could you do this to your friends? To me? To the BAU?" Erin asked, trying to reason with her former subordinate.

"The BAU is nothing compared to the life that Tim has given me. You wanted nothing to do with me and instead you hired me to work for a place that I learned is trying to kill me. So now, your team is going to die. Every single one of them. Starting with your fiance, then everybody's favorite boss, Aaron Hotchner," Jason said.

"No! Please don't hurt them. They are all I have left. Especially Dave."

"Well, it might be a little late for that, ERIN," Jason said in a voice she had never heard before. "Your team is gone. They're gone. They're in the middle of the desert. Their plane crashed over New Mexico/Arizona. That's why the signal disappeared. The last thing I heard was that Rossi fell 50 feet off the side of a canyon and broke many bones. He's been bleeding internally for almost 16 hours. No one's even looking for them. No one."

"NO! NO, NOT DAVE!"

"Too late," Jason grinned sadistically, then turned on the screen. The spinning spiral appeared and Erin was forced to stare at it.

"I'll be back in a couple of hours," he said, walking out of the room, shutting and locking the door behind him.

~CriminalMinds~

An hour and a half later, Jason and the Strangler returned to the room to see how Erin was doing. Her engagement ring had been sent to the hospital where Rossi would be taken to. The note had been folded so that the threatening message couldn't be seen.

Jason walked over to Erin, and called his boss over to look at her.

"She's good to go," the Strangler said. "Let's first ask her a few questions to see how she is really doing."

Tim turned the screen off and stood in front of Erin.

"What is your name?" he asked.

"Erin Strauss," she replied.

"Who do you work for?"

"You, and I know that Jason is your accomplice," she said.

"What is the BAU?"

"A place that wants to kill me."

"Who is Dave Rossi?"

"My ex-fiance."

"Are you ready to complete your first assignment?"

"Yes, Sir. Happy to comply."

TBC...


	8. Dark Side

The team was panicking. Hotch had been in surgery for almost six hours and so far, there had been no news. Until the lead surgeon came out to the group with a grim look on his face.

"Family of Aaron Hotchner?" he asked.

"We're his co-workers, but since his family is unavailable, then all emergencies are notified to me," Rossi said.

"I'm sorry, but Agent Hotchner did not survive the surgery. He never made it off the table."

Every member of his team had horrified looks on their faces. They broke down crying after learning the fate of their leader.

"Agent Rossi, may I speak to you alone, please?" the surgeon asked.

Rossi followed him into another room, shutting the door behind him.

"I have some good news. Agent Hotchner actually did survive the surgery, and is now resting in the ICU. But the bad news is that he may never walk again. The blood vessels have been repaired, but the chance of him walking or getting back out into the field is at five percent. He requested that if he did die and we were able to save him that you would be the only one to know this information. After he is released, he will be sent to a physical therapist to hopefully regain full movement."

"Thank goodness he's alive."

"Also, this was delivered here about 20 minutes ago. There's a note taped to the bag, but you're the only one that can open it."

Rossi took the bag and gasped in horror when he saw that Erin's engagement ring was inside. The note had two typed sentences: We have your fiancée. And you're never going to see her again.

The profiler walked back out into the waiting room, telling the team that Hotch was going to be buried tomorrow.

~CriminalMinds~

Hotch's entire team and family gathered at the cemetery to remember the loss of someone special. A black coffin was on the ground, in front of a headstone that said: Aaron Hotchner, 1965-2014, loving husband and father.

The team each placed a white rose on his coffin, then spoke about how important Hotch was him.

However, at the very end of the cemetery, Erin Strauss stood out of sight, preparing to attack her target. The Strangler had done an excellent job of brainwashing her into working for him, and now she was prepared to do whatever he told her to do. There was no way that she would be returning to the BAU anytime soon. Gideon had his memory completely changed, but the memories of his fiancee and team were somewhere else in his mind that he didn't really use much. Erin didn't remember anything about Rossi; all she knew was that instead of him being her fiancé, he was her ex-fiance. And she was prepared to get her revenge.

**_You should have known better not to mess with me, honey. I'm gonna love you like a black widow, _**Erin thought. _And female black widows kill their partners, just like I'm going to kill you. You left me for that Carolyn woman. _

The former Section Chief pulled out a handgun and walked towards the group. But just before she reached the six members, she put the gun into her pocket and prepared to trick Rossi.

"Dave!" she exclaimed.

Rossi turned around at the sound of his fiancée's voice. She looked fine, and didn't seem to have been hurt.

"Erin! Are you alright? Did he hurt you at all?" the profiler asked.

"No, he did not hurt me. But I'm fine," she replied.

As Rossi prepared to hug her, she reacted quickly and whipped out a gun, pointing it at him.

"Erin, what are you doing?" he asked.

"Shut up," she snapped. "You don't deserve to talk. Sir, I got him trapped. What shall I do with him?"

"Wait for me to arrive," a voice said.

The former Section Chief kept her gun steady. Elle, JJ, Reid, Morgan, and Garcia turned around to see Rossi being held at gunpoint by his fiancée.

Two minutes later, Gideon and the Strangler arrived, carrying sniper rifles.

"Sorry, Dave, but I'm working with them now," Erin said, smiling sadistically. "The life they've given me is so much better than the one that I ever had with you."

"What are you talking about?"

"Shut up. You treated me like nothing. I was just your little love interest until you ran off with Carolyn. That's why I'm not your fiancée anymore."

"Erin, what are you talking about? Carolyn's been dead for seven years. I love you."

"No you don't. Is it because the BAU is trying to kill me? Why would I even want to work there?"

"Erin, you've been drugged. The BAU is trying to help you."

"Like I would ever believe your lies."

"I'm not lying."

"I don't believe anything you say. Everything you told me was a lie. A lie. We're finished."

Erin fired off a shot, but luckily, the bullet didn't hit anyone.

She turned on her heel, then started walking away with her new boss and best friend by her side.

~CriminalMinds~

Hotch awoke in a bright room. The pain in his abdomen had subsided, and he noticed that he was wearing a hospital gown.

"Agent Hotchner, good to see that you're awake," the doctor said. "You nearly died on the table, but we were able to bring you back. You broke your pelvis, causing you to be unable to stand or walk. We were able to repair the severed blood vessels and your broken pelvis. But the bad news is that you might never walk again."

"What?"

"I'm sorry. But you may never get back out into the field again. You are believed to be dead by everyone you know. Except for Rossi, who is the only one that knows that you're alive. You will be sent to a rehab facility for several months. We are going to try and hope that going to rehab will help you regain movement and hope that you're going to get back out into the field."

TBC...

***A/N: Erin's thoughts in bold are from Iggy Azalea's "Black Widow."***


	9. Won't Get Fooled Again

It had been exactly a month since the team had learned about the fate of their leader. Rossi was now the new Unit Chief, and Mr. Matteo Cruz was the new Section Chief since Erin had left for the dark side. Rossi was finding it hard to keep Hotch's secret. The former Unit Chief was doing well at rehab, and he was a speedy healer, because his therapist had told him that he had regained full movement. He was able to walk, run, and shoot. He would be returning to the BAU that day.

Rossi called the team into the conference room and told them that he was stepping down as Unit Chief. Section Chief Cruz had gotten to meet Hotch already, and the profiler was more than willing to regain his position as Unit Chief. Rossi had told Cruz that when Hotch returned, he would step down and become a profiler again.

In the conference room, JJ and Garcia were crying heavily. The other team members were looking up towards the sky, knowing that their team leader was looking down on them.

"We have a new case," Cruz said. "A serial bomber has resurfaced. The bomber who killed six FBI agents three years ago. We think that it's a copycat, but we are not sure exactly. We are going to be bringing in someone who personally solved the original case."

A knock was heard on the conference room door, and the team didn't seem to hear the noise. But they jumped once they heard the person speak.

"I think that would be me," Hotch said.

The team turned towards the door and could not believe what they were seeing. Hotch couldn't believe alive; they had buried him.

"Hotch?" Morgan was the first person to speak. "Is that really you?"

"Yes it's me," the Unit Chief said.

~CriminalMinds~

Erin stood in her boss's house, watching the BAU's security camera feeds. She saw Hotch walk into the conference room.

"Sir, he's alive!" she cried. "Agent Hotchner is alive!"

"That's not possible," the Strangler said. "You even saw the team bury him."

"Well, I'm looking at the screen, and he's standing right in the room. He is alive."

"I'm going to make sure that when I get my hands on him, he dies. The Unit Chief dies by my hands tonight," Tim replied. "Want to help me?"

"Done," Erin said sadistically.

In another room, Gideon was thinking of helping Clara get out of prison. But, he suddenly was overcome by a pain in his head. He began hearing strange voices, and saw the vision of a woman wearing an engagement ring. He heard a voice say, "Elle, will you marry me?"

Suddenly, more faces and voices were coming back to his mind. People he recognized, and people that he remembered working with.

His memory slammed back together, and Gideon realized that he had been kidnapped and brainwashed. He remembered seeing Erin having the same thing happen to him. He knew that he needed to grab the Section Chief and run before the Strangler noticed anything wrong.

Gideon was no longer a deadly unsub. He was a BAU profiler, and one of the people who began the Unit 20 years ago. Erin had become Section Chief a few years after.

He headed into Tim's office, and found Hotch's file sitting on the desk. He grabbed the file and hid it in his jacket pocket. He figured that Elle and the team would probably never forgive him for what he and Erin did. Gideon found Erin holding a black handgun and walking towards the office.

"Strauss, can I speak to you alone for a minute?" he asked. Erin nodded, but suddenly became aware of a pain in her head.

Once inside the office, with the door locked, Gideon told Erin what had happened to them. Her memory came back, and she realized that she had tried to kill her fiancé. They needed to get out of their prison.

Erin dialed Rossi, and he picked up after the second ring.

"Hello Strauss," he said without any introduction.

"Dave, it's me and Gideon. We know who you are. We know that you are not trying to kill us. And we realize that the BAU is a good place. We were kidnapped, drugged, and brainwashed into working for him. Gideon has Hotch's file, and we are going to figure out how to get out of this prison," Erin replied. "Do you have my ring?"

"Of course."

"We're going to bring this unsub in ASAP. Expect a call from me once we arrest him."

"Ok, I'll tell the team."

Gideon had a pair of handcuffs hidden in his jacket, and he signaled to Erin to go looking for their target.

Tim came around the corner, and before he could realize anything, Gideon had tackled him to the ground and had him arrested.

"Tim Vogel, you are under the arrest for the kidnap of two federal agents and attempted murder of another. Also, you will be arrested for hijacking a plane carrying federal agents and possible terrorist actions. You have the right to remain silent, and anything you say can and will be used against you in the court of law."

Erin dialed Rossi and told him that Tim's threat was over, and that she and Gideon were free from his control.

~CriminalMinds~

Hotch had been happily reunited with his team, until he heard them gasp. Cruz had just entered the room, telling them that two federal agents had just arrested an unsub, and that they were about to enter the room.

Hotch and the team headed out to the bullpen, and saw the elevator doors open. Erin walked out first, evidence bag in her hand, and out next came Tim and Gideon. The team was astounded to find the betrayers had the unsub arrested and being lead down to the holding cells.

"What is Jason doing with the Seattle Strangler?" Reid asked.

"He and Erin both have their memories back. They realized that he had kidnapped and brainwashed them. Once they had regained the memories, they arrested Tim and brought him down here," Rossi said, pulling out Erin's engagement ring. She walked over to her fiancé and allowed him to put the ring back on her finger where it belonged.

~CriminalMinds~

In a dark room of a quiet house somewhere unknown, a man was watching his computer screen. He saw the BAU profilers sitting around a table, looking very happy. But unfortunately, he wasn't. He had been discovered by the FBI, and was now going to have to stay hidden. And he hated having to stay hidden.

"You're going to pay for this," he threatened under his breath. "I will make you pay, Agent Rossi."

The man headed into another part of the house, and began pulling out many different materials, including metal and C4.

TBC...


End file.
